Hotel Beth Needs an Upgrade

Interesting how my lack of posting could imply two totally opposite situations (nothing happening vs. too much happening). Luckily this pause is for the better of the two reasons. My mom and Molly have been in town for the past 2 weeks and we have been busy adventuring (well, they were adventuring, I was still working). It was a great visit, but it just went too quickly!!

They went all over Bavaria including Neuschwanstein castle and also down to Salzburg. Last weekend we all went on an adventure together to Straubing and then Nurnberg. What do you mean you haven't heard of Straubing?! Just another fault in the American school systems I guess. Ok ok, I'm absolutely kidding. In the train on the way, a guy asked us if he could join us on our Bavaria ticket (since you can take up to 5 people for the same price) and paid us. Then he talked the whole way there. Which in the end was a really good thing because the track was closed right before our stop so we had to switch to a bus, but of course this announcement was only made in German and I am definitely not that fluent yet. So a big thank you to Christoph for helping us make it to Straubing and for sharing his brownies.

We went to Straubing in hopes of seeing the "Dance with the Devil" display. Apparently this "artist" created this big display in the city center with 1,500 garden gnomes all making the Nazi salute. But of course we get all the way there only to discover that the display was taken down the Monday before. Oh well, at least we now know where to get the best Doner in Bavaria.

Then we went to Nurnberg which is the second largest city in Bavaria and it the lebkuchen capital of the planet. I LOVED Nurnberg. Every corner had a lebkuchen shop! I definitely need to go back there to see the rest of the city. It is a great mix between a medieval city and Munich. Oh and we found the best little chocolate shop where you can drink all sorts of amazing hot chocolates! And one of my favorite things in the city was the Marriage merry-go-round. It is actually a fountain/statue with what I am guessing is the pitfalls of marriage or something. I'll have to post pictures as it is indescribable.

Then before Mom and Molly left yesterday we did Christmas. So I get to play with my gifts for an extra 2 months! It was great. What can I say, having your mom around is always great. For example I discovered a bag of Halloween candy this morning (on Halloween) that she had hidden for me. Oh how I love peanut butter and chocolate (and my mom!).

Next week is the week of travel for me so hopefully I'll have some more good stories soon!

He Just Gave Up . . .

I don't know why I love this story as much as I do but, well . . . I just do. So today I got a call from my internet provider. The guy called and when I picked up and said, "hello" he said, "Oh do you speak English?" and I of course said "yes." Now at this point there was not an audible sigh, but I could actually feel the blood drain from his face. So he started off well, saying that he was from Alice and then asked if I had a handy (aka cell phone) and then proceeded to begin a little spiel about switching. However after about 2 sentences (for the record his English was very good and I was totally following) all of a sudden he just paused and then hung up! He actually hung up on me in the middle of his pitch. I couldn't believe it. All I could do was laugh. I mean he was doing so well and everything. Oh well, maybe tomorrow I'll get a telemarketer who let's me actually hang up on him.

Schützen-Festhalle (Again)

I had the fantastic opportunity to return to the Schützen-Festhalle tent at the Wiesn again today. I was invited by a colleague from the German OE to join him and some other reinsurance guys at the tent, so well, of course I joined. It was much the same as the last time except that I got to experience the reason behind the name Schützen. One of the guys is friends with the owner of the tent, so we got to go to the back of the tent and do some Schützen (translation: shooting). So apparently the name of the tent has to do with the relationship with a shooting club and the members of the club can enter the tent anytime they want and use the air-gun shooting range in the back. We had lessons with these two old German guys and then got to shoot. I can proudly say that not only did I hit the target all 5 times, but I actually scored quite well. We even got certificates, pins, and our shooting strip. What can I say, just when I think the Wiesn can't get better, it goes and has a private shooting range in the back where I don't make a fool out of myself. Oh Munich . . .